Internet marketing

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Question - how do I make best use of the web for my business?

Answer - by recognising the full scale of the possibilities of its technology in every aspect of your business to automate processes and convert prospects into loyal customers

Key points

Internet marketing is a phenomenon. Every day we read how more and more money is being invested by global corporations in Internet-based communication and promotion.

This has been a hard road for global corporations to follow, requiring a complete shift of mindset, skills, disciplines and timescales.

For the companies like Amazon, eBay, Monster and Google who have grown up in the webbed world the road has scarcely been easier but they have at least known where they were going.

There are now millions of small virtual companies or individuals trying to make their buck – Twitter has almost been built on the ‘fast buck’ tutorial offer – “How I make $100,000 a day even when I am asleep”.

The reality is that the success ratios remain persistently stable whatever the business model. Even massive enterprises like FaceBook and MySpace struggle to capitalize on their mindspace, and millions of websites developed from big dreams raise and lose pocket money. Most commercial websites are still primarily ‘brochureware’.

The really successful corporations of the future will know how to combine ‘bricks & mortar’ and Internet offerings. Apple is an excellent example of this approach, producing real world products which become systematized using Internet technology, e.g. iTunes, iPod, iPhone. Symantec would be another example, as is Microsoft. Full use of the Internet means using its technology in every aspect of the business – throughout its supply chain – from new product development, to recruitment, to manufacture, to promotion, to product purchase and beyond.

In more detail .....

The expectation for years has been that several technologies would converge, merging eBusiness, call centers, and transactional activities into Internet marketing. Here video, voice, voice-digitisation systems, artificial intelligence software, knowledge management systems, transactional systems & mobile telephony are creating one process over time whereby a customer can deal with a supplier wherever either of them happens to be, using combinations of digitally-originated data, voice and vision.

And indeed this expectation is coming rapidly to pass, although it has proven to have been far from a painless exercise.

The attraction of Internet marketing to any brand manager is significant:

• global reach
• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service
• reliably consistent delivery of the brand
• interactive audio-visual communications
• additional advertising revenue opportunities for popular sites
• personalisation
• low cost-to-serve
• real-time feedback and the potential for rapid response

• the predominant culture of the Internet is at best ‘proven value’ and at worst ‘something for nothing’

• comprehensive Internet marketing processes are very expensive and complex to develop on a large scale

• there are daily innovations in technology

• "back-end" logistics operations are difficult and costly to integrate

• pure Internet ‘plays’ are hard to monetise

Internet marketing has already developed through several generations, with yet others envisaged:

1. information only
2. two-way communication
3. commercial transactions
4. customisation
5. use of speech & sound
6. integration with mobile telephony
7. automated operations
8. intelligent agents seeking out customer opportunities
9. full multi-media capability 1
10. voice controlled

• websites / search (with Google predominant)
• blogs
• e-mail / e-newsletters
• web conferences / webinars
• Internet-delivered free samples
• pay as you go advertising (Google, FaceBook etc.)
• affiliate marketing (persuading partners to drive traffic to your site)
• social networking (Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace)
• video sites (e.g. YouTube)
• PodCasts
• mobile marketing

Of the established corporations, Dell was an early beneficiary with its vision of developing an integrated supply chain, stretching from its suppliers to the final customer. Many other large corporations struggled, trying to graft Internet marketing to its existing operations as an experimental communication channel, and failing to deliver a credible experience.

However one problematic area of traditional business that Internet marketing is rapidly transforming is marketing itself as, for the first time, an aspect of communication is almost instantly analyzable in terms of its results at least in terms of communication responses (click-throughs, number of followers within the social network, new / repeat visitors etc.). For pure Internet plays, this trail can be followed through to the actual sale, but for large consumer manufacturers who deliver their goods primarily via retailers, the formula is as elusive as ever in terms of ultimate payback.

Some key things to look for in Internet marketing are:

• the look, feel and sound of an Internet marketing experience must personify the brand

• if customers do not feel in control when using the medium, they will quickly feel threatened and frustrated by any inconvenience. ‘Walking away’ is easy

• customers will expect an increasingly interactive, multi-sensory, multi-channel, and personalised Internet marketing service, with real world events to support the virtual experience. The strongest relationships will be built with suppliers who anticipate and respond quickly to customer needs

• the logistics of Internet marketing will be based on personalisation, precision and speed, thus requiring just-in-time operations and lean manufacturing

• prices will eventually be forced down by a combination of lower costs-to-serve and globalisation, although many software companies are still managing to enforce regional pricing policies

• the ability to provide global networked services will become critical

We can help you in two ways - we have a mass of smart strategic brand marketing tools, processes and workshop techniques for you to use, and a mass of smart brand marketing agencies as members across the world with niche knowledge and experience to support you thereafter.

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